The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1887-05-28
the SPY SYSTEM.

When the condition OF country
is such that Its government resorts
to espionage, and establishes a
system of spies, it is in pretty
bad way-looks rather sick-not
very comfortable for the govern
ment, and horribly unpleasant for
the people. A tyranny of this nat
ure is among the worst forms of
tyranny. The history of France
which embraces the few years i'm
mediately preceding the destruction
of the bastile furnishes vivid ex-
ample.
When government has to keep
track of its own people by a set of
spies, it may he safely taken for
granted that there is something
wrong about the government. In
free country, loyalty to government
is usually regulated by, and in pro-
portion to, the governments prac-
tical concern for the public welfare.
Generally, if the government is
managed in the interests and for the
welfare of the people, the people
will be loyal and contentcd, and it
will not be necessary to track and
shadow them by spies. On the
other hand, if government arrogates
to itself special privileges, conducts
public affairs in its own interest,
and despises the voice of the peo-
pie, dissatisfaction, discomfort. and
disquet will almost surely follow. if
not plotting, undermining, andrevolt
Just the condition which usually
creates espionage.
TO bring the matter home, the
spy system is, to some extent, in
vogue here. 1t is not new idea
nor new practice. 1t has been
operated more or less for several
years past. A set of unprincipled,
double-faced sycophants, who in
some instances have sold their en-
ployers unknown to those gentle
men, have been engaged in this
meanest of all occupations. But at
present we are enjoying quite q
stirring revival in this line. Some
of the old practitioners, quickened
afresh, and lot of new converts,
are fitting around and showing their
unsavory noses and hypocritical Wis
sages into hooks and corners, into
places of business and private
houses, in prosecution of their con.
temptible calling, and not alway'
confining themselves to the truth il
their reports to their masters, who
do not show great sagacity in theil
choice of material.
In view of these facts, which arc
pretty we'll known to all men of or
dinary shrewdness, we may Sc
riously ask, has the breach between
the government and people of this
Kingdom become so widened, and i:
mutual confidence so utterly de
stroyed, as to lead to this condition
of things! Are we coming to state
of things like that of Ireland, where
revolt has so permeated the masses
of the poor people, that their gov
ernment has to shadow them will
spies, at the heels of whom are regi
ments of soldiers, to keep them il
subiection! There is not more
loyal section of the great British
Empire than the Emerald Isle. Bu
she groans under generations o
wrongs, and now rises to demanC
her rights. which she wants, anc
nothing more. Give her those rights
and she will volunteer her sons, to
the last man, to fight for the Empire.
There is not more loyal people
anywhere than the mixed company
constituting the community of this
Kingdom. If there is dissatisfaction,
and there Isl if there is discomfort,
and there is: if there are murmur-